REUTERS
For the implementation of this crucial reform, the EU provides EUR 104 million in assistance within a special program, including EUR 90 million for budget support, which is transferred directly to the national budget.
The European Union has decided to allocate another EUR 15.5 million for Ukraine to improve public administration.
This will be a second disbursement to Ukraine's 2018 state budget out of a total of EUR 90 million committed by the EU to support public administration reform (PAR).
The recent decision is based on the progress achieved by Ukraine in PAR in 2017, the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine has said.
"This assistance is linked to Ukraine's performance in a number of indicators, including coordination in public administration reform, introduction of Reform Staff Positions, improvement of human resources management and reorganization of public administration," the EU Delegation said in a statement.
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"Through this decision to transfer EUR 15.5 million of EU funds to Ukraine's 2018 state budget we recognise tangible progress made by Ukraine in implementation of the public administration reform. This particularly concerns establishment of a well-performing PAR coordination framework at political and senior civil service levels, transparent and merit-based recruitment to reform staff positions, launch of a pilot phase of reorganisation in 10 ministries, as well as conceptual work initiated in the areas of policy making and general administrative procedure," Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Thomas Frellesen was quoted as saying.
This allocation follows the first tranche of EUR 10 million, which was made available in May 2017.
According to the EU Delegation to Ukraine, the current implementing year remains very challenging. The Ukrainian government is expected to deliver on a number of strategic tasks to continue PAR successfully and in a sustainable manner. In particular, it is expected to carry out a comprehensive review of the PAR Strategy and its Action plan in line with the conclusions of the OECD/SIGMA baseline measurement of Ukraine's public administration. What is more, the government should improve its procedures, strategic planning and policy making frameworks and start practical implementation of the rightsizing plan of public administration, as well as to improve the salary system of civil servants. Besides, the EU expects the Ukrainian government to compete reorganisation of 10 pilot ministries and launch this process in other ministries in line with the Concept of optimization of central public administration bodies and to adopt the law "On General Administrative Procedure".
For the implementation of this crucial reform, the EU provides EUR 104 million in assistance within a special program, including EUR 90 million for budget support, which is transferred directly to the national budget, and EUR 14 million for technical assistance, which is used to provide advisory services to government institutions involved in PAR.